Moore Catholic's Mark Fiorello drained two long 3-pointers, one in the fourth quarter to tie and one in overtime to go ahead, to lead the Mavericks.Denis Gostev

Mark Fiorello has the perpetual green light from coach Tony Rafaniello. He can take 3-pointers at any time, even when he’s struggling or his shot is off. Even early in the shot clock. Sometimes even contested.

“I encourage them to shoot,” Rafaniello said of Mark Fiorello and fellow Moore Catholic guard Jordan Sanders. “Sometimes they just get confused with distance. They think in yards; I think in feet.”

Near the tail end of an uncharacteristically bad shooting day, Fiorello decided to pull up from about 25 feet along the sideline. Never mind there was just over a minute left in overtime and the Mavericks were down two.

“I didn’t even think about it,” Fiorello said. “I just let it go.”

The ball found the back of the net, putting Moore Catholic ahead for good in a dramatic, 55-52 overtime win over Bishop Ford in the CHSAA Class A boys basketball quarterfinals Saturday afternoon at Mount St. Michael in The Bronx. Fiorello’s trey came with 1:14 left and put the Mavs up 50-49.

When asked if he was OK with Fiorello putting up the long bomb, Rafaniello chuckled.

“Did it go in?” the decorated coach said. “I was very cool with it. It’s a fine line.”

Scott Schaefer finished with 18 points, Fiorello had 11 points, John Baggs had 10 points and Sanders added nine in a typical balanced effort for Moore. The Mavericks (20-5) meet Iona Prep in the semifinals 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in a rematch of another overtime game from the regular season, one in which Moore won on a basket at the buzzer by Ray Savage.

Iona and Moore were the top two teams in the ‘A’ all season, but will meet before the final because the bracket is pre-seeded before the season. Rafaniello wasn’t too upset, because the CHSAA, he said, has made many concessions for the Staten Island programs and their SIHSHL organization. The Island teams in the ‘AA’ and ‘A’ don’t play as many CHSAA league games as the squads from the other four boroughs do due to the SIHSL and a cap of 24 games per season is allowed by the state.

“The bottom line is, you gotta beat who you gotta beat,” Rafaniello said.

The longtime coach has beaten more teams than most. On Tuesday, he’ll go for his 500th career victory against Iona, making the game even more meaningful to his seniors, who want to be the group that gets him that milestone victory.

“It would be a great thing,” Schaefer said.

Moore put itself in position to do so by beating tough Ford (9-15). The Falcons led, 42-32, with 6:31 left in regulation on a Josh Blagrove basket. He had 15 points and Daquian Youngblood and Marc Jones each had 16 points.

Fiorello – who else? – tied the game at 44 on a 3-pointer with 33.7 seconds left. Frankie Schettino and Blagrove traded free throws to send the game into overtime.

“We didn’t have a doubt in our minds that we weren’t going to win this game,” Fiorello said.

All the Mavs needed was another long 3 and they were set. Rafaniello said he didn’t mind the heave all that much, because Fiorello is a gym rat, at Moore putting up shots some days even before the coach arrives at 6:30 a.m.

“He deserves the freedom,” Rafaniello said. “He’s the hardest-working kid I ever coached and I’ve been coaching a long time.”